mikes@pedsga.UUCP (Mike Shulman <shulman>) (09/08/90)
Hello everyone! I am looking to buy a good chess program for my IBM PC. The 2 I am currently considering are Chessmaster 2100 and Sargon IV. If anybody can recommend one over the other, or knows of a program which is better then those two, please let me know. Thanks in advance! - Mike. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Shulman Internet: shulman@tinton.ccur.com UUCP: rutgers!petsd!pedsga!mikes
lb2e+@andrew.cmu.edu (Louis Blair) (09/11/90)
>I am looking to buy a good chess program for my >IBM PC. The 2 I am currently considering are >Chessmaster 2100 and Sargon IV. If anybody can >recommend one over the other, or knows of a program >which is better then those two, please let me know. rec.arts.movies has something called the Frequently Asked Question List which is regularly posted and updated. If rec.games.chess had a similar regular feature, this would certainly be one of the first items on it. Opinion seems to be near universal that Chessmaster 2100 is a stronger player than Sargon IV, but there is also a growing number of reports from people who say that there are other programs available that are superior to either of these: Rexchess, Gnuchess, Zarkov, AI chess, M chess, etc. I understand that Stuart Cracraft has some involvement with those last four and I will let him give you the details for them. Rexchess is being developed by Larry Kaufman and the main distributer seems to be ICD (1-800-645-4710). I'm afraid that, at least as far as I know, there is no truely independent source for information on the relative strengths of all these programs. A typical problem that one encounters is illustrated by Computer Chess Reports that does undertake to report on the latest developments in chess-playing machines and programs. It is published by ICD and written by Kaufman. Another thing to keep in mind is that the performance of any one product will depend very much on the type of machine that is running the program. I understand that in the case of some of the programs like Sargon and Chessmaster, the program for the Mac, for example, may be completely different from the program sold under the same name for an IBM machine. This is why you will sometimes hear contradictory word-of-mouth reports about some of these programs.
6600kntp@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu (Kent Perrier) (09/19/90)
In article <1399@pedsga.UUCP> mikes@pedsga.UUCP (Mike Shulman <shulman>) writes: >Hello everyone! > I am looking to buy a good chess program for my IBM PC. The 2 >I am currently considering are Chessmaster 2100 and Sargon IV. >If anybody can recommend one over the other, or knows of a program >which is better then those two, please let me know. > Thanks in advance! > - Mike. >-- >---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >Mike Shulman >Internet: shulman@tinton.ccur.com >UUCP: rutgers!petsd!pedsga!mikes I would recommend Chessmaster 2100. I have it and I like it a lot. That's my opinion, at least. Kent Perrier 6600kntp@ucsbuxa.ucsb.edu @ucsbuxa.BITNET
DAM137@psuvm.psu.edu (09/19/90)
If would like to have a compitent chess player with great graphics and sou nd, there's always Battle Chess. It can be a challenging game when set on the upper levels of play, it gives you something to watch while waiting for those l ong, drawn out moves, and it is a neat novelty program. Beyond that, the price isn't bad either...
tomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts) (09/20/90)
>In article <1399@pedsga.UUCP> mikes@pedsga.UUCP (Mike Shulman <shulman>) writes: >> I am looking to buy a good chess program for my IBM PC. The 2 >>I am currently considering are Chessmaster 2100 and Sargon IV. >>If anybody can recommend one over the other, or knows of a program >>which is better then those two, please let me know. >> Thanks in advance! If you insist on _buying_ one, go ahead. However, why not give the recent DOS port of GNUCHESS at try? Sure, its character based interface is simplistic, but you also get full C source code. Also, I know from personal experience that there is at least one (possibly unreleased) EGA/VGA graphics version. And, I read in comp.windows.ms that there is an MS Windows version, but I have not actually seen it. Stuart Cracraft, a frequent poster to this group, should have all the details on DOS GNUCHESS. Tom Rombouts Torrance Techie tomr@ashtate.A-T.com V:(213)538-7108
ron@woan (Ronald S. Woan) (09/20/90)
In article <1248@ashton.UUCP>, tomr@ashtate (Tom Rombouts) writes: >In article <1399@pedsga.UUCP> mikes@pedsga.UUCP (Mike Shulman <shulman>) writes: >> I am looking to buy a good chess program for my IBM PC. The 2 I am >>currently considering are Chessmaster 2100 and Sargon IV. If >>anybody can recommend one over the other, or knows of a program >>which is better then those two, please let me know. >> Thanks in advance! Tom> If you insist on _buying_ one, go ahead. However, why not give Tom> the recent DOS port of GNUCHESS at try? Sure, its character Tom> based interface is simplistic, but you also get full C source Tom> code. I'd like to second the recommendation to try GNU Chess.. It isn't as slick as the two commercial products mentioned because it lacks features like historical replay and stuff, but it is basically as strong from reports in gnu.chess... I own Sargon 3 and Chessmaster 2100 and find that both are good for teaching tools, but GNU Chess for MS Win 3.0 (on cica.cica.indiana.edu in pub/pc/win3/games?) is the one I play the most these days while downloading files or reading news... Ron +-----All Views Expressed Are My Own And Are Not Necessarily Shared By------+ +------------------------------My Employer----------------------------------+ + Ronald S. Woan woan@peyote.cactus.org or woan@austin.iinus1.ibm.com + + other email addresses Prodigy: XTCR74A Compuserve: 73530,2537 +